ATA RANGI CRIMSON PINOT NOIR 2023

Winery notes (2023 Vintage)
"20 years ago we named this special Pinot Noir “Crimson” in support of Project Crimson, the charitable trust working to replant and preserve native red-flowering pōhutukawa and rātā trees throughout New Zealand. Ata Rangi founder Clive Paton has planted more than 75,000 trees at the Ata Rangi family’s Bush Block. We continue to support conservation efforts across our region. Crimson Pinot Noir celebrates our commitment to remain in service to the land and to the ecosystem that sustains us.

The nose is a blend of perfumed notes of rose petal, grilled raspberry and wild strawberry. Savoury aromas of star anise and meat marrow combine with fresh thyme and rosemary. The palate is wonderfully delicate and complete. A lighter structured wine with deliciously subtle and gentle tannins that flow and sustain. Flavours of pomegranate glaze and cranberry linger on the finish.

2023 was a very different year from the norm in Martinborough. Cooler, wetter conditions prevailed. This vintage is a blend of all our parcels, new plantings through to our 43 year old vines. Careful handling of a tricky vintage has resulted in a very elegant, complete wine with a mix of youthful fruit expression and more complex savoury notes from older vines.

Fruit was hand-harvested with the majority destemmed and a small parcel whole bunch fermented. Indigenous yeast ferment took place in stainless steel tanks before the wine was racked off into French oak barrels for 12 months."

91/100 Stephen Wong MW, The Real Review, July 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"A departure from the typically broad-shouldered expression of Crimson, this is a reflection of the 2023 vintage. Instead of making three single vineyards, plus the estate pinot and the Crimson pinot in 2023, winemaker Helen Masters responded to the cool, wet conditions by crafting an estate-wide blend for the Crimson as the only still pinot noir in the cellar that year. This is clearly a lighter year, but there’s also a delicate, elegant side which emerges from the shadows—it’s an ethereal wine which speaks in whispers and echoes. For the devoted Ata Rangi pinot noir collector, Crimson 2023 is what you drink while waiting for the other vintages to come out of their shells.

Light ruby. Floral, delicate nose with subtle aromas of pot-pourri, wild berry and rosehip. A light, crisp palate with crystalline, light-weight tangy flavours and a subtly savoury finish which rests on bony, chalky, fine tannins. Volnay-esque in its expression of lightness and clarity, like lace stained with cherry. Accessible now but it will unfurl and evolve within the context of its more contemplative, delicate style, at least in the mid-term."